Thursday, 28 May 2015

Edinburgh International Film Festival programme launch

A new artistic director, Mark Adams, who gave a very entertaining speech at the launch, has taken over for this the 69th edition of the festival, which will run from 17-28 June. The event will showcase 164 features from 36 countries, including 24 world premieres, 8 International premieres, 16 European Premieres, 84 UK premieres and 2 Scottish premieres.

My impression at this stage is that the festival has become more commercial this year, with fewer obscure films and more mainstream features. Certainly I feel there are fewer 'must-see' films for me. I know that my tastes are eclectic and odd and that moving towards the mainstream makes sound economic sense, but in a world where even the arthouse cinemas seem to be becoming ever more mainstream, I have always valued Edinburgh International Film Festival as somewhere I could guarantee my fix of obscure films.

Having said that there are a number of films I hope to catch and review here, including:

Black Island Poets in which two sisters on the run pretend to be poets to find refuge in a poetry weekend;

Blood Cells in which the UK foot and mouth epidemic of 2001 impacts on a young farmer

6 comments:

Lovely blog - just wondered if you know about the Edinburgh Festival of Cycling? It's on in a couple of weeks, and includes all sorts including films, talks, rides, books and cake! Just thought you might be interested... Just google edfoc for more info.